Live Source Input guide · OBS, butt, SRT & WHIP

Get on air in five steps

1. Check your plan
Live Source Input is included on Creator, Pro and Network. Staff and administrators always have access. If the panel shows a lock, upgrade from Membership & billing and the ingest details appear immediately.
2. Open the Live Source panel
Go to your Station Console and open the Live Source tab. Each station gets its own ingest URL and stream key — never reuse a key across stations, and treat it like a password.
3. Copy your ingest details
You will see an RTMP URL (best compatibility), an SRT URL (best for unstable connections) and a WHIP URL (lowest latency, browser friendly). Copy the URL that matches your encoder plus the stream key.
4. Configure your encoder
In OBS: Settings → Stream → Service “Custom”, paste the RTMP server URL and stream key. In butt: add a server of type Icecast/RTMP and paste the same values. Hardware encoders use the SRT URL.
5. Go live and confirm
Press Start Streaming, then watch the Stream Health card. When the publisher turns green your station is switched to the live feed; stopping the encoder returns it to your automated rotation.

Prefer to be walked through it? Open the setup wizard — it shows the same details with green badges as each step completes.

Every publish attempt is checked against your plan and station stream key before it reaches the server.
Stream keys are only visible to the station owner and staff — they are never exposed on public pages.
Regenerate the key if you shared it with a guest host; the previous key stops working right away.
Use the SRT or WHIP endpoints for encrypted-in-transit delivery when broadcasting from public Wi-Fi.

“Authorization failed” in OBS: The stream key is wrong or your plan does not include Live Source Input. Re-copy the key from the panel — regenerating a key invalidates the old one instantly.
Encoder connects, nothing on air: Your station must be approved and marked live. Check the station status in the console, then confirm the Stream Health card shows a publisher.
Stream keeps dropping: Lower your bitrate to about 70% of your measured upload speed, or switch from RTMP to SRT which tolerates packet loss much better.
Listeners hear silence: Confirm the audio track is enabled in your encoder and that the mixer is not muted. Audio must be present on track 1.
Fallback kicked in mid-show: The self-healing watchdog swaps to your rotation after a few seconds without a publisher. Reconnect and it hands control back automatically.